About 540,000 people in Hong Kong suffer from hepatitis B and the general belief among most people is that chronic hepatitis B can only be managed, not fully cured. However, the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) can be erased in some patients. These cases can be considered recovered and are technically referred to as “functionally cured.”
The Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) analyzed the data of recovered hepatitis B patients and found that the risk of severe liver disease complications decreased over time after recovery, but the risk of liver cancer did not show a similar trend. This serves as a reminder for patients to remain vigilant post-hepatitis B and closely monitor their status on a long-term basis. The details of this study have been published in the international medical journal the Journal of Hepatology.
